Thursday, June 13, 2013

Ethiopia Part II: Lalibela, Gondar & The Semien Mountains

Wow,
the end is near.At the moment, I am
sitting on a rooftop deck in Luxor, Egypt, having spent the last three nights
sleeping on a sailboat on the Nile and am leaving Africa after all this time in
just eight days.I've been here in Egypt
for about two weeks now and while it has been interesting it has been by far
the most emotionally draining experience of my entire trip.However, that is all for the next post, first
I need to wrap up my time in Ethiopia and as you will see when you scroll down
it’s been quite a trip.The north of the
country has an incredible mix of wonderful historical sights and natural
beauty, and while I only got a small taste of everything the country has to
offer it was more than enough to really appreciate the country and recommend it
to others.Read on (or just look at the
pictures!) and you will see exactly what I’m talking about.

Unfortunately
the day began with getting scammed. The
previous day I’d ‘bought a bus ticket’ towards Lalibela from a stand near the
bus station and was told the minibus would pick me up at my place. That didn’t happen, no one showed up, and
when I walked to the station to sort it out I was simply lead to a regular
local minibus that was of course far cheaper than what I’d actually paid. I honestly wanted to punch the guy in the
face, but I didn’t have the time or energy to fight over it.

Being
on an increasingly tight schedule in these past few weeks has really limited my
ability to deal with these kinds of situations where previously I’d had more
time and flexibility, which makes it easier to tell someone ‘no,’ look for
other options, or fight it out for a fair price. Not being so able to do this was really
getting to me and causing me a lot of stress, which I really didn’t need. As I wrote about in the previous post,
Ethiopia is a great country with a lot to see and do as well as wonderful
hospitality, but at the same time there seem to be a lot of people whose
mission is to hassle you and cheat you, to a degree I haven’t experienced in
other countries. On the whole the
balance tilts well in favor towards the positive, but it’s not always easy.

Shortly
after 8am the minibus left Bahar Dar, crossed the ‘source of the Nile’ and
headed towards increasingly hilly and scenic terrain. Out the window I saw a cycling group
(something extremely rare in Africa…), the shell of a tank, rural villages and
a great deal of the ever present eucalyptus plantations. About four hours later I transferred to
another bus that would take me the rest of the way to Lalibela, where I got
ripped off again by the person selling tickets which only added to my bad
mood. At least the scenery was
good! As we bumped along the dusty and
winding road I looked out the window and had to wonder how anything is able to
grow out here. It was the very end of
the dry season so the place was hot, dusty and hadn’t seen water in ages, but
to me the terraced hillsides seemed to consist of nothing but rocks rather than
soil. Agricultural productivity in
Ethiopia is extremely poor, droughts are a fairly regular occurrence and as a
result only 65% of the rural population consumes the WHOs daily minimum food
intake and 75% sharing sleeping quarters with livestock. Life here is hard.

After
two hours on the bus I arrived in the town of Lalibela, found a Slovenian
couple I’d crossed paths with back in the Egyptian embassy, sat down to some
cheap food with them and found a place to sleep near the bus station (aka a
dirt lot) for about $2.50. I had no
interest in doing anything else that day, so I laid in bed napping, reading and
watching movies on my computer.

I
awoke the next morning ready to take on the day, knowing it would be a bit of a
battle and set off up the hill towards the center of town. As soon as I walked out the gate of the hotel
it began, every ten meters someone asking for money, shouting “you you you!” while
pointing, wanting to be a guide, or starting in with their same old “what
country you from” which in nearly every case is the first question of someone
who is pretending to be friendly but only trying to make money off you. To those who seemed friendly, or who were
just students who wanted to speak some English I was happy to say hello as I
walked, but most people I simply tried to tune out and kept walking. Kids would follow me, saying “hello money!”
and I’d say ‘no’, so they then say ‘hello chocolate’, ‘no’, ‘hello pen’, ‘no’,
and back to ‘hello money.’ I’ve dealt
with this kind of thing before but never on this scale and intensity. I know they struggle here, but I’ve been in
places MUCH poorer, and no one would dare act like they do here in
Lalibela. I already hated this town with
a passion.

I
dropped into a local mud brick restaurant where I could escape the people on
the streets, had some eggs, bread and coffee, then moved on to another more
touristy place for the best fruit juice I’d had in all of Africa. I was here to see the churches, but first I
had to figure out how to get back to Addis Ababa. After asking around a bit it seemed that
although there are occasional private vehicles that make it to Addis in one
day, it’s not a sure thing and the usual method is by bus that ends up taking
two days. I opted to fly and luckily got
one of the last tickets available. With
that sorted out, it was time to try and enjoy what I came here for, the stone
churches.

While
I was warned about it ahead of time, the ticket price to see the churches is an
astonishing $50. Considering the two
most famous tourist attractions in all of Africa, Victoria Falls and the
Pyramids cost only $20 and $9, I found this to be extremely overpriced for
something few people have ever even heard of, but it is pretty cool stuff so I
paid it and off I went. (the ticket is
good for 4 days, but you can see everything in 1, or maybe two at a slow pace
to relax and spend some time taking photos in different light, I have a hard
time imagining anyone wanting to visit four days in a row)

The
site is made up of 11 churches, carved directly into the stone during the 12th
century during the reign of King Lalibela and remains in use as important
religious sites to this day. Some
restoration work has been done, including the outside pillars you see in the
previous photo, but in general they remain and feel very authentic. I didn’t want to pay for my own guide, but I
was able to tag along with a package tour group and gave the guy a few bucks on
the side, which worked out well. The
insides, floors covered in carpet, lit with cheap florescent lights and filled
with a haphazard collection of religious paintings aren’t the most beautiful
places, but there are some nice architectural details in some of the churches
and they are a cool and quiet escape from the Ethiopian sun. And other than the ‘guards’ asking to see
your ticket often, there were no real hassles once inside.

As
I said, the place is an active and important religious site to this day and
full of authentic Ethiopian Orthodox Christian character.

Because
the site is made up of numerous different churches, the route to view them all
is a bit circuitous, sometimes taking you through dark tunnels deep in the rock
itself. Very cool.

A
bit to my surprise, there is very little in the way of carvings of people or
icons or scenes; one of the churches had a few carvings of important religious
figures but nearly all the work is arches, windows and ledges.

The
morning section of the tour ended with visiting the most famous of the
churches, St George. Carved in the shape
of a cross, straight down into the stone and with perfectly vertical and
horizontal lines and full of little details it is something very special. Although not the largest it is by far the most
spectacular of the churches and is Ethiopia’s most iconic structure.

I
returned to the town for the lunch break and was quickly invited into the home
of a young boy named Cherent for tea and coffee. It was a one room mud walled house, with one
bed and a few 25kg bags of USAID provided corn/soy blend. He pulled out one of his English language
school books, which he said he had to share with 10 other students, and we
spent the next hour plus reading sections together, talking and drinking coffee
and tea.

(On
a totally unrelated note, those girly white sandals he is wearing seem to be
the most popular men’s footwear in the country.
The cool kids often have two different colors, a green one on the left
and red on the right for example.)

Benchew
(Cherent’s mother), wearing with the traditional Ethiopian hairstyle, making
coffee. You can’t see it in this photo,
but that charcoal stove is actually made of repurposed USAID vitamin fortified
vegetable oil cans which I thought was pretty creative. In many places I’ve been (rural Burundi for
example) the cans are used as a standard of measurement in the local markets,
but here in Ethiopia I think is the first place I’ve seen the material used to
build something completely new.

Another
uniquely Ethiopian thing that doesn’t quite show up in this photo is Benchew’s
facial tattoo. It is extremely common to
see women here with facial tattoos, which rather scarily I’m told is done with
either battery acid or ash. The most
common is a cross on the forehead or other religious symbol, and another common
one is Amharic text down the jaw from the ear to the chin. Often when I see these out of the corner of
my eye, my first thought is it looks like a bearded woman, haha. Still, it’s very cool to see this kind of
thing and is simply another illustration of the countries rich and unique culture.

In
the afternoon I re-joined the tour at another of the churches, one that was
first a palace before being transformed into a church. Although it was a fairly small space, it had
channels carved that were probably 18 meters deep around it and a bridge to
enter, making it a pretty spectacular place.
That said, one of my favorite parts was actually the heavy door; a few
hundred years old, with a rich red and brown color, rough metal work and fading
paintings.

After
being lead past a series of other stone structures and through a long, totally
dark tunnel that is supposed to represent the path to hell, we arrived at
another of the largest churches, this with two stories! (Though you can’t go upstairs unfortunately).

Shortly
after 3pm, the tour was over. I chatted
briefly with some of the other members of the group, finding out they were
medical architects, here to help advise on hospital design and construction,
paid the guide a few bucks on the side and headed back on my own way, having
enjoyed seeing the churches quite a bit, pleased I’d had a guide to explain it
and ready to go get a cold fruit juice.

At
the restaurant I met another traveler naturally a German, who told me they
were going to be playing football (soccer) with some Spanish guys down at the
field and asked if I wanted to join. I
said not really, but I’d come hang out.
After enjoying another fruit juice, some local food and some coffee, I
headed down to the field and watched the children and the European guys play as
the sun set on the mountains in the distance.

Once
the game was over, the sales pitch started, and the kids started up with their well-rehearsed
story of how they had a big match coming up and needed money to buy a new
ball. Next thing you knew there were
probably 20 young boys surrounding them, asking for balls and money and shoes
and everything else, using their best manipulation tricks to try and make the
foreigners feel guilty and hopefully therefore generous. This went on for probably 20 minutes, including
the group of kids following us up the hill a good ways. Only a few boys were doing the talking, the
rest were just there for the show, curious how much these white suckers would
hand over. Lalibela, hassle capital of
Ethiopia… I briefly gave my thoughts on the matter (you can guess what those
were…) and in the end the kids got nothing.

During
the football match, our little group of travelers was joined by three Spanish
women and we all headed out to find some dinner. We ended up at a really unique place called
Ben Abeba, designed and owned by a Scottish architect. Built on the edge of town and on top of a
ridge, it had wonderful views of the surrounding area and is something
completely unique in the area and probably the country, hell, I’ve never seen
anything like it anywhere in the world actually! It is a crazy mix of spiraling ramps,
covered glass areas, open platforms and bizarre angles and shapes. There are gardens, a large outdoor fire pit
(where we had dinner and beers) and equally strange toilets. It’s still very much a work in progress, but
a very cool place that is without a doubt worth visiting for dinner if you are
in the area.

After
dinner, Markus and I set off to have a few more drinks, ending up at the famous
tej place (honey wine) that had some live traditional Ethiopian music, and then
moved back towards his hotel. As we were
sitting there, we began chatting to a local teenager, who maybe because he was
drunk started bragging a bit about how he has three different ‘sponsors,’ white tourists he has met, who send him
money for ‘school fees’ and whatever else the story he gives them is. He spoke very good English, so no doubt he is
going to school and is a pretty smart guy, but when asked if these three
different people know about each other he wouldn't answer. Yes there is a lot of need out here, but keep
these kind of stories in mind before you start taking out your wallet….

The
area is very scenic, so after a lazy morning more delicious fruit juice and
walking through the same streets filled with people hassling me, I set off to
hike up to the ‘mountain monastery’ above town.
As I headed towards the trail a young boy I’d talked to at football the
previous day approached me to be my guide. I was sick of these people and
wanted to be alone, so I told him I didn’t need or want a guide. He didn’t leave. I told him again, he didn’t
leave, I told him again, he still didn’t leave.
Fine. Screw it. I told him I
don’t want a guide, but if he won’t leave he can plan guide, but I’m damn well
not going to pay him anything for a service I specifically said I didn’t
want. Maybe he will learn a lesson. So I started the hike in a bad mood,
great.

The
day was hot, the trail was dusty and the views were great. After climbing up a switch backing path filled
with students from the surrounding hills going to and from school, donkeys and
locals headed to worship, I reached a plateau that had a few simple homes, poor
soil and eucalyptus plantations. So in
other words, the unfortunate norm for rural Ethiopia.

After
about an hour and a half of walking, me and my unwanted guide reached the
Asheten Mariam Monastery, which is carved into the cliff and overlooks the town
of Lalibela. If you look closely, you
can see the entrance in the white section of rock near the top in this
photo. I had no interest in paying an
extra 150 birr, almost $10, to see yet another hold in the rock, I just wanted
to go for a nice walk and enjoy the views, so I looked around a bit and headed
back down the hill into town.

My
‘guide’ continued to follow me back to my room, and I simply said goodbye and
walked away. Naturally he protested,
saying I must pay him, and I had to remind him I told him three
times before starting I didn’t want a guide and he wasn’t getting anything form
me. He was not pleased and I doubt his
behaviour will change, but whatever. I
just wanted to go on a nice walk alone, he ruined that for me.

Seeing
as I’d paid $50 for the ticket to get into the churches of Lalibela and the
ticket was good for 4 days, I returned to the churches to spend some time alone
finally and at my own pace instead of with the group like the day before. On this day there were very few tourists, and
I had many places to myself which was very nice. I walked slowly, enjoyed the peace and quiet
and played around with my camera. After
passing into one of the dark, cool and quiet tunnels connecting two churches, I
stopped for a while to enjoy it alone and took out my camera and headlamp for
some long exposure fun!

Because
I had to return to Addis to deal with my Egyptian visa, I caught a shuttle to
the airport, which is about 40 minutes out of Lalibela. I was glad to have seen the churches and the
area as both were beautiful, but I was glad to be out of the town and couldn’t
imagine spending any more time there.
Out of everywhere I’ve been, from one end of Africa to the other, I’ve
never encountered a place I disliked more in terms of the people. I’m sure most people are kind, polite and
good hearted, but those aren’t the people you meet when you walk through
town. Instead of meeting the good
people, all it seemed I encountered was greedy, aggressive and rude people
harassing me constantly that have nothing to do all day but sit around and wait
for a white person to walk past. Get me
out of here.

Shortly
after 10am I arrived at the small airport and an hour later was in the
air. The flight, which cost about $65,
flew west to Gondar, then to Addis Ababa.
I prefer traveling by land just because it’s more interesting (and
cheaper!), but as I mentioned earlier this saved me a day and a half of travel
time, I was running on a schedule, and I found it to be a pretty convenient and
reasonable way to get about the country.

Having
arrived in town a day before my appointment with the Egyptian embassy, I
figured I’d drop by anyways and see what the status was. The news?
Bad. After having waited nearly
two weeks for them to simply put a sticker in my passport, I was told that my
passport wasn’t scanning on their machine and I needed to take it to the US
embassy and get some sort of letter certifying my passport was real! This was obviously ridiculous, but what could
I do? Luckily the US embassy is nearby,
so I trudged that way and discussed the matter with them. The US embassy told me that of course it’s a
real passport, that what the Egyptian embassy was saying was absurd and that no
such letter ‘certifying’ my passport exists.
Great. I walked back to the
Egyptian embassy, told them all of this and was told…. To come back
tomorrow. I had a bad feeling about
this.

Luckily
Addis my previous CouchSurf host, was awesome, and I’d kept his apartment key
while out on my journey and therefore had a hassle free place to return
to. After the crap I’d dealt with over
the past few days I was in a terrible mood and this passport problem certainly
wasn’t happening. If I can’t get the
Egyptian visa, I can’t get the Sudan visa, will miss the country entirely and will
‘fail’ my trip traveling through every country from one of Africa to the
other. And I really want to see Sudan.

I
spend the whole next day dealing with this visa problem again, visiting the US
embassy and again being told there is nothing they can do, the problem is
obviously on the Egyptian end. When I
went to the Egyptian embassy, I was told that a higher up was coming and I
could talk to him, and I spent the next three hours waiting. He never showed.

For
the third day in a row, I returned to the Egyptian embassy and this time had
reinforcements, Joey and Travis, two other American guys who were doing the
exact same thing and having the exact same stupid problems. At least with three of us it was clear it
wasn’t a case of a bad passport, but a problem with their system in dealing
with American passports. We spent the
next few hours waiting again for a guy who never showed up and complaining
about how absurd and frustrating the situation was. Eventually the woman behind the desk
inexplicably told us that they could probably sort it out, took back our
passports and told us to return on Monday.
More waiting. The longer this
takes, and it’s running into its third
week at this point, the less time there is to deal with the notoriously insane
Sudan embassy and the less likely that is to actually go through. Not looking good.

That
evening was a party at the place where Addis works, so we took minibuses out
there to see what was going on. The
place is pretty strange, a sort of oasis of western world in Ethiopia (although I'm told it has 80% Ethiopian staff). It is an entire office complex designed for NGOs, built like a business park in America, had a totally different
look and feel from the rest of, well, Africa, and was full of people
doing aid work, research and development.
This night was the end of a conference which is why there was a party,
but it wasn’t all that interesting and was really just a strange scene of
plenty of middle aged white people pretending they weren’t in Africa.

The
next day Addis, Katia and I headed out to check out Mercato Market, said to be
‘the largest open air market in Africa.’
Personally I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. If I hadn’t been told about what it was
supposed to be ahead of time, I wouldn't have though it was anything different
from any other part of town filled with shops, nor really any different from
other markets in Ethiopia and across Africa.
That said, African markets are fun places to wander around and full of
interesting sights, sounds and smells, so I certainly didn’t mind walking
around for a while.

With
Addis as our guide, we walked through the ‘metals section’ and something really
incredible happened. As we walked the
narrow alleys, people were doing all sorts of metal work; straightening bent
pieces of wire, cutting angle iron into different lengths, pounding corrugated
metal into flat sheets and so on. Maybe
it was only in my head, but the complex, diverse and competing sounds of men
working metal on metal seemed to turn into a kind of music, with its own unique
rhythm and melody, completely surrounding me.
It was a brief moment and two or three turns later we were out of the
area but there was something very beautiful and powerful about it. Africa man, love it.

Eventually
we left he market, checked out a nearby church, got some fruit juice and headed
home for dinner.

One
of the countless fruit stands that line the streets here in Addis Ababa. Hungry yet?

That
night after getting together with a bunch of people for pizza, we spent the
next hour or so trying to find a hotel where there was supposed to be some sort
of reggae party. Naturally it turned out
the taxi driver didn’t actually know
where it was and this lead to much frustration, but by 11pm we finally found
the place and it was a big let-down.
Instead of a live band like was implied, it was just a guy with
dreadlocks playing records. At least the
view over the city was nice!

Maybe
it was the pizza that did it, but I woke up the next morning sick, making it
only the third time on the whole trip.
After spending most of the morning in pain and with horrible things
coming out both ends of me I started feeling better by the end of the day and
even got some food down. It wasn’t too
bad and I was 100% the next day, but it’s never how you want to spend your
time.

Monday
afternoon the other Americans and I returned to the Egypt embassy, and were
extremely pleased to finally receive our visas.
I think the process took me something like 10 visits to the embassy and
three weeks, but we finally had our visas.
We quickly headed to the Sudan embassy because having the Egypt visa was
supposedly the last thing we all needed to apply for Sudan, and were told… to
come back tomorrow.

At
8am we all met up at the Sudan embassy to attempt to apply for the visa,
prepared to fork over a whopping $200 for the 15-day transit visa. The guy wasn’t in. We were told to wait. Air Bud was playing on the TV mounted to the
wall, and everyone sitting in the office waiting stared at it like zombies. Eventually the window opened, we went up to
apply and were basically told it wasn’t possible to get into Sudan. Perfect.
Not yet giving up, we ended up speaking with another more friendly man,
but now they were telling us something new, that even for the transit visa, we
would need letters of invitation from someone in Sudan! This would have to be sent to the ‘foreign
office’ in Khartoum, and they the office in Khartoum would have to send it on
to the embassy here in Addis, and then
we could start the process of applying.
Sudan, every horrible thing you have heard about the visa process is
true…. Joey and Travis had been working with a hotel owner in Sudan who helps
organize the paperwork for travelers and gave him a call. What he said was that this process will take
at least a week or two, involve visiting a handful of government offices in
Khartoum and cost another hundred or two hundred dollars.

Fine. I give up.
Sudan, I wanted to visit, I really did. Everyone says the government is horrible but
the people are wonderful, I wanted to come see this fascinating country for
myself. But you are almost
impossible. All I was going to do was
pass through, spend a bunch of money for the ‘privilege’ and take a few
photos. That’s it. It’s clear you don’t want foreigners in your
country but you are only hurting yourself and your people…… If I had more time, I would have tried to
wade through your nonsense and see your country, I really wanted to visit, but
what can I do?

The
whole thing really disappointed me. Not
only was I missing out on what I thought was going to be one of the most
interesting countries in all of Africa, but I was having to fly over the whole
damn thing putting a huge break, geographically historically and culturally in
my attempted journey from one end of Africa to the other. We all went out to an extremely disappointing
brunch, complained and mumbled to ourselves and tried to figure out what to do
next. The worse part really was how much
time and energy I wasted on the Egypt and Sudan visas. I was in Ethiopia for 36 days and I feel like
I lost at least 10 of those days dealing with the visa, in addition to having
to bounce across the country just to keep the appointments. I could have seen SO much more of Ethiopia if
it wasn’t for this whole thing wasting my time in the beginning, middle and end
of my time in the country… Just take a deep breath and move on, it was out of
my control….

The
obvious solution was to take our minds off it, so we headed to the Bole area,
the most modern part of the city, and went to see the newest Iron Man
movie. It had plenty of robots and
explosions, but wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as visiting Sudan would have been…

We
hung out for the rest of the day and into the night; getting lunch, swapping
movies and drinking beers back at Taitu Hotel.
With Sudan out of the question I at least now knew my schedule and made
a plan. This gave me an extra week in
Ethiopia and an extra week in Egypt I would have otherwise been spending in
Sudan, so I bought my plane ticket from Addis Ababa to Cairo, which cost me $370,
and another ticket from Addis Ababa to Gondar in the north of Ethiopia for
another $65 to save time.

I
had to wake up at 5am to go to the airport, but by 8:45am I’d landed at the
Gondar airport. My plan was to see the
castles for the day then move north to organize and go on a hiking trip in the
Semien Mountains. If there was time, I
was hoping to somehow then make it to Harar before returning to Addis Ababa
where I’d fly to Egypt. It was a lot to
fit in, and I was feeling the time crunch, something I hate, but I wanted to
get a few last things in here in Ethiopia before I had to move on. I’d do my best.

Other
than the wonderful old castles, there isn’t much to say about Gondar, but the
castles and the nearness to the Semiens make it absolutely worth the
visit. All of the castles are contained
in a walled compound which the modern town has grown around and makes a cool
contrast between the two different worlds.

The
entrance ticket was a very reasonable 100 birr, and after turning down one or
two perspective guides, I wasn’t hassled at all and had the place nearly to
myself which was very, very nice.

High
ceilings, huge doorways, wood floors and many fireplaces.

Looking
over the walls into the modern town.

The
area contains dozens of structures, from imposing castles, to library’s, to
lion cages. I spent a relaxing hour
walking through and enjoying the area. A
little more time would have been nice and there is an old church in a different
part of the town that is also included with the ticket, but I had a bus to
catch and had to go.

I
left Gondar for the town of Debark, paying way too much for what should have
only been a 30 birr, 3 hour minibus ride, but I got there and was at least
happy it had gone smoothly. Debark is
where the Semien Mountain National Park office is located, and while you can
organize hikes from other parts of the country through travel agencies, it is
quick, easy and much cheaper to just do it in person when you show up at the
office.

The
people at the office were very helpful explaining my options for hiking, and
laid out the prices as follows: 90 birr
a day for the park entrance fee, 75 a day for the required ‘scout’ who is a
guide but just leads the way and doesn’t speak English, 80 birr a night to stay
in the lodges along the way (you can camp for 30 or something), 60 a day to
rent cooking gear and 130 a day for a mule and mule driver to carry
everything. You can also hire an English
speaking guide and a cook if you would like.
All that is required is the park fee and scout, so if you come with your
own camping gear the trip is amazingly cheap.
I’d been stupid and didn’t bring my cook stove so I had to rent that,
but I decided to be lazy and enjoy myself a bit, opting for the mule to carry
my things and to stay in the lodges instead of bringing my tent. Even with this, plus paying for stove fuel
and another $15 for my food, the 4 day, 3 night trip cost only about $115 in
total. In a short time, everything was
organized to leave the next morning. Easy.

I
found a mud walled hotel with no running water and used condoms behind the bed
for a few dollars, then set out to do my food shopping. There is almost nothing in the town of Debark,
only one store to buy food other than the local market, and options were
basically rice or noodles and a few canned goods. If you want better food, pick it up in Gondar
before coming, but you can make do and I wound up with some noodles, tuna fish,
veggies, bread, peanuts, jam, oatmeal and cookies. It wasn’t fancy but it would do. I had a few beers that night and tried to get
online, but the power kept going out and it wasn’t really possible, so I laid
on top of the bed in my hiking clothes and went to sleep.

By
8am the next morning my scout and I set off, walking out of town and towards
the countryside.

Once
out of town, we spent the next few hours walking through empty fields that were
being prepared for the start of the rainy season. It’s certainly not the dramatic cliffs and
troops of baboons people come to the Semiens to see, but I actually enjoyed
just walking through a rural agricultural area, having spent so much time in
similar areas all across Africa.

My
scout leading the way. I have no idea
what the gun is for, just for show really.
This is seriously an incredibly safe and relaxed area. Though he didn’t speak any English, he was
great guy and guide, pointing out animals in the distance, helping carry my
things and making sure he stood between me and aggressive dogs in the
villages.

One
thing to keep in mind about this trip is it isn’t a wilderness hike like you
might think. You walk through farmers’
fields, along roads, between herds of cattle, sheep and goats, under power
lines and through villages. It wasn’t
what I was expecting, but I actually enjoyed that aspect of it a great
deal. After about three hours of walking
the scenery became everything I had expected; huge cliffs, low brush and hundreds
of baboons.

The
first gelada baboons I was were a troop of at least 100 in the distance but I
was hoping to get much closer. After
stopping for lunch on the edge of a massive cliff and checking out some of the
small flowers starting to poke out of the soil with the rains that just
started, I saw another huge group and headed straight for it. Baboons are normally quite aggressive
creatures and it would be a bad idea to do this with other species, but geledas
are incredibly relaxed. As I got closer,
they pretty much ignored me completely and went about their business, walking,
running and scooting around on their butts as the pulled grass to eat. Camera in hand, I sat down to watch and was
really amazed by the fact I was sitting in the middle of 100+ baboons, with the
only sound being the wind, the occasional screech of young ones play fighting
and the sound of them tearing out bits of grass all around me. I’ve had a LOT of animal encounters out here
in Africa, but this is without a doubt one of the most unique and wonderful.

We
kept walking, the scenery kept improving.

Shortly
after 2pm, six hours after leaving town, my scout and I arrived in the ‘town’
of Sankabar, a few buildings along the road, where the lodge and campsite are
based. I’d intended to stay in the
lodge, but then a guy came up and offered me a very cheap tent rental and said
there were other people around the camp site, whereas I was alone in the lodge.
Happy to save a few dollars and have some people to hang out with I walked to
the campsite where I was greeted yet again by a large troop of baboons, just
passing through grazing on the grass. I
think there are nearly 50 in this photo alone, and that was just a portion of
them!

That
evening I met two other Americans who were also hiking out here and spent the
afternoon and evening chatting and eating with them in the cooking hut. Over the evening a number of other groups
showed up, some walking, some by car, and we all sat around the fire sipping a
great bottle of 12 year scotch a Scottish guy brought with him.

After
waking up early to watch the sunrise and cook a totally uninspiring breakfast
of oatmeal with peanuts and jam in it (like I said, food options were extremely
limited!), we set off on the trail which runs along the cliff edge, checking
some interesting birds, strange plants and plenty more baboons. After an hour and a half, we reached a
viewpoint with not only fantastic views of the cliffs and villages below, but
of one of the most spectacular waterfalls I’ve ever seen,
Jinbar Waterfall.
Again this is the very tail end of the dry season so water levels are
very low, but even so it was fantastic.
I can only imagine it when the water is really flowing. There were a
few different raptor species flying around the area, taking advantage of the
winds and updrafts to lazily cruise along the cliff edge looking for prey and I
spent an hour watching them and the water fall on the other side of the valley
before heading off again.

Nice
huh?

As
we walked farther and farther up, it became time to take a lunch break so I
climbed over the stream and across the rocks to sit by this small waterfall to
eat my bread and bananas. This is
actually just upstream from the long falls in the earlier photo, that little
stream is all that is making the huge drop right now. Oh yah, and of course I did the whole hike in
my $2 Ugandan flip flops, which everyone thought was crazy.

A
bit later on we passed through this small farming village I believe is called
Gich. The layout, construction methods
and architecture, in particular the huge low-angle grass roofs, were a style
I’ve never seen before and found very interesting.

Just
beyond the village is ‘Everlasting Lodge’, the place to sleep for the second
night and including the stops at the waterfall and lunch which totaled probably an hour and a half, it took five and a half hours of gradual to
moderate uphill walking to reach this site.
After putting my bag down in one of the three dorm style sleeping rooms,
I headed out to enjoy the scenery, perching on a boulder on the hill above the
lodge. My guide, taking his job
seriously, followed me, wrapping himself in his blanket to hide from the cold
and waiting about 60 meters away. As I
sat watching light change across the grasslands the air was filled with the
sounds of cracking whips sounding a great deal like gunfire, from the young
boys herding the various animals around the area and like the metal workers in
the market it created a strange but beautiful soundtrack.

Two
French women were also staying in the lodge and I spent the night talking to
them, also opting to buy dinner on this night rather than cook for myself. As the sun was going down, someone ran inside
to tell us to come out and look. In the
distance was the rare Ethiopian wolf and although it was only a quick glance, it
was cool to see.

The
next day was going to be a longer one, so I woke well before sunrise to pack my
things, eat breakfast (eggs, which I also bought from the lodge) and get
ready. By 6:45am we were on the trail
again and walking towards the rising sun.

The
highlight of the day was to be the Imet Gogo viewpoint and
we made good progress.

How’s
that for dramatic scenery? By about 8am we reached the viewpoint and
although it was a bit hazy in below, this easily ranks as some of the most
stunning terrain I’ve seen in all of Africa.

Looking
in the other direction yields very different but equally amazing scenery.

After
an hour or so enjoying the views it was time to head back down the trail, which
includes some pretty wild Dr Seuss style landscapes.

Back
through the village.

And
back to Sankabar, where I spent the first night. With heading out to the viewpoint and back it
made it a longer day distance wise, but it was all downhill so it was not
challenging. This time I decided to stay
in the lodge and although of course it is very basic it was fine. A short walk away is a spring where they have
taps for filling water, and another tap you can use as a shower. The water was freezing and it wasn’t a warm
day either, but bathing in spring water in an open shower, in the trees of
Ethiopia’s Semien Mountains was enough to make me enjoy it anyways. Like before, my scout followed me and sat a
ways away while I bathed which was weird, but oh well, just doing his job!

Later
in the afternoon two Australians showed up and we had a great time talking,
listing to music, playing Uno and cooking our equally pitiful dinners together,
haha.

Because
I was hoping to get all the way to Addis Ababa via an overnight bus from
Gondar, I wanted to hike out as fast as possible the next morning and after
loading up the gear my scout and I cranked up the pace a bit and headed off.

Heading
through villages on the way back to Debark.
Because the rains were only just beginning again (there had been light
rain for an hour or so every afternoon, the start of things to come) the
grazing areas were extremely depleted and it looked like all the grass areas
had an extremely close shave. With the
rain over the past few days, things were starting to green up a bit and it was
a very cool transition to witness.

Children
in the village.

With
the coming rains, the men (and boys) were out plowing the fields and planting
seeds. Here you can see the very basic
tools they use to do the job, but I’ve been plenty of places where they don’t
even have plows or animals to pull them, so this was cool to see.

Shortly
after noon we arrived back in the town of Debark where we had begun the
journey. I tipped my scout and mule
driver, happy with the job they did, and boarded a bus for 30 birr headed to
Gondar. Once again it was a three hour
ride, and the woman behind me wouldn’t stop puking, but I made it without
problems and without being puked on. In
Gondar I walked around and started asking about a night minibus (which is
basically considered the most dangerous form of transport in Africa…) to Addis. Within minutes I found one, leaving in just
20 minutes, and was amazed at how well the timing of this whole journey from
Addis Ababa, to Gondar, to Debark, into the Semiens and back was working
out!

The
ride was uneventful. We left just before
5pm, I enjoyed the views of the country side until the sun went down then tried
to get some sleep. This didn’t go well,
because two times we hit bumps in the road, resulting in smashing my face into
the seat in front of me and actually getting a bit bruised and bloodied, but oh
well, these things happen. I met some
nice local guys on the bus who bought me tea and offered me khat (I’m trying to
sleep, no thanks!) and by about 5am had arrived in Addis Ababa, returning to
Addis’ apartment with maybe 90 minutes of poor sleep in me. Again, it was awesome to have such a great
host and friend in the city.

I
spent the afternoon taking a long (cold) shower, washing essentially every
piece of clothing I carry with me, sorting photos, using the internet café and
drinking coffee. That night I treated Addis to dinner at Taitu to say thanks and enjoyed an evening with him and a
random assortment of European expats, travelers, and researchers.

I
was leaving Ethiopia in just two days and didn’t feel like doing anything else
but getting organized and relaxing. I
had a late breakfast with Silke, a friend I’ve made in town who is here from
Germany doing research, ran some errands and returned home.

Watching
Flight of the Concords and mending my pants, exactly what I’m talking about
when I say organization and relaxation.
Blue thread on khaki pants? Why
not, it’s all I have! These pants have
been through something like 24 countries over the past two and a half years,
they are well past retirement at this point but with only three more weeks I’m
sure they can last until I get home!

After
another intentionally uneventful and stress-free day the 31st had
come, my last day in Ethiopia and time to say goodbye to some of the wonderful
people I’ve met here. A bunch of us met
headed for dinner at an Indian place, I ate until I was stuffed, thanked Addis
for being one of the best CS hosts I’ve ever had and contemplated what was
coming next. Addis, you are welcome to hang out on my island any time!

Despite
all of its challenges and hassles, many of which I’ve detailed in this and the
previous post, Ethiopia is an amazing and wonderful country. I think it is by a wide margin the most
interesting country I’ve seen in my travels and this is despite only seeing a
small fraction of it. It won’t always be
easy, but travel in Ethiopia is an amazing and rewarding experience I would
recommend to almost anyone interested in seeing Africa.

Egypt
has been crazy. I feel like I left
Africa behind in Ethiopia and landed in a totally new world, which really I
have. I’ve wandered the streets of Cairo
(the most insane city I’ve ever seen), visited the great pyramids, taken a
train across nearly the entire country, sailed the Nile, seen plenty of ancient
Egyptian temples and had some pretty strange encounters on the way. Check back later and you will see what I’m
talking about!

Hi stumbled about your blog as I'm researching travel spots throughout Eastern Africa. Your blog is extremely inspiring, transformational, and a breath of fresh air that we are all citizens of the globe; hence, not being afraid to travel regions the media deems to scare us away from to keep us close minded. I have been accepted into a 3 month volunteer program where I will be helping the local community in Gondar. I plan on spending another 2-3 months visiting through Kenya, Tanzania to hike Kilimanjaro, Zimbabwe to hike the victorian waterfalls, MAYBE South Africa to see cape town penguins, and hopefully Madagascar wild life. From there I will spend another 6 months- 1 year through India into South East Asia getting yoga certification and visiting monks, studying eastern theologies, and more a "spiritual conquest". From one back packer to another, I would LOVE the opportunity to exchange some wisdom from your epic journey and maybe share some travel stories of mine. I lived on a Kibbutz in Israel for a month, ran with the bulls in Spain, interviewed a Zen Master, went into West Bank / Palestine, and spent about 6 months of 2012 living abroad, but not quite as adventurous as your journey to say the least! I'm currently living between Las Vegas and LA.

If we can connect through skype or phone call , I would be very thankful. Hope to connect :)

I'm an Ethiopian living in Canada and i' m glad you enjoyed your journey in my country !nice hearing some great news like yours ! you are actually an awesome ambassador for other people (-:despite our bad image related to the famine area, Ethiopia has changed a lot so far ! some people are still stuck with fears and ignorance.so welcome back if you wish to go again (-:Amesgnahlu ( thank you in Amharic)